Japan Adrealine TV 3.4 PvP Update

[Blubbers]

DRK Changes - These are definitely needed. DRK is fine in solo when they can focus on putting out damage, but they have virtually no support which becomes clear when you're doing premades against a co-ordinated burst group. Paladin reigns supreme here with stuns, cover, and testudo while warrior has the best tank burst as well as thrill, mythril tempest, and holmgang. Drk has definitely improved, but a 6s damage reduction move (that can be purified) and tar pit just don't cut it against strong burst. One suggestion some of us had early on (credit to Nikoza/Tea Pan) was a "share the pain" move that's like cover but damage is split -> the idea is it could be used to save someone against an LB much like thrill/testudo. Either way, looking forward to these changes.

No role restriction in 8v8 - Yes please... You will always have situations where there's 8 melees that end up on a team, but this will so drastically improve queue times that it's worth it. 100% agree with this change, it's 8v8 and non-competitive anyway, lets just get some matches in there.

BLM Sleep Nerfs - As an Aether group that did a lot of premade 4v4 feast last season with a BLM comp, and as far as I know possibly the only BLM team in NA (although maybe primal had one??) A I strongly disagree with these changes. I get where they're coming from looking at the JP solo queue rankings with all of those BLMs at the top, but in premade 4v4s this is just not an issue. This is them balancing around solo queue instead of around the more competitive party mode, which I get because party mode is dead, it's just a bit disappointing. BLM used to be amazing pre-heavensward when purify was 120s and sleeps lasted 30s. Sleeps rightly got nerfed to 15s, purify got nerfed to 90s due mainly to summoners in seize, and then feast came out.

Our BLM comp relied heavily on sleeps and LB. We strongly lacked in the burst department by taking BLM (and PLD), but we made up for this with LB. SE then nerfed sleep to 12s, and has since nerfed LB to do 10% less damage. We haven't started playing this season, but if we do we've already decided to drop our BLM comp in favor of BRD or MCH, and that was before they announced these further sleep changes.

Against a good team that knows how to share purifies and can communicate this, black mages aren't nearly as effective. The team can set aside a purify rotation ahead of time, they give updates when purify is coming available, and with a 90s recast they can always have a purify available for the healer during a crucial sleep time. We've seen it many times, if you're playing a good team they can counter a BLM team without too much effort. If they have a bard with paeon every 45 seconds, it's an even better counter.

Basically, this feels like a nerf that is based around solo queue instead of party queue. As party queue theoretically has a higher skill level and could be considered the more competitive mode, although I get where they're coming from as solo queue is much more active (and it's much harder to co-ordinate purify sharing across solo mode).

I think the real sign that this was unnecessary is to look at the top groups that you see playing and look at what jobs they run. I don't know any other group on Aether that uses BLM as their main range, most use machinist or brd. Likewise you don't see any groups running with a Drk, most use paladin and occasionally warrior.

BLM comp is basically the only non-burst comp right now. Summoner used to be more interesting pre-heavensward -> you used to be able to run a battle of attrition strat spreading dots which made it fairly unique, but after heavensward it too has turned into a burst role. You now have BLM with sleeps, and then BRD/MCH/SMN who are all burst. I think this change is basically bottle-necking pvp.

[Nalien]

One suggestion some of us had early on (credit to Nikoza/Tea Pan) was a "share the pain" move that's like cover but damage is split -> the idea is it could be used to save someone against an LB much like thrill/testudo. Either way, looking forward to these changes.

Hmm, I'd been knocking around a HP trade move for a while, given Dark Knight has no Thrill of War/Clemency equivalent at all, but a Cover equivalent would have some nice synergy with Blood Price... Still, that seems too similar to Cover IMO, even if it's technically weaker, I'd rather not homogenize Jobs like that... Could be more interesting to have it work more like a defensive/Cover version of Wildfire (which is also how Noct Sect should work, rather than being a cheap Adloquium clone...), but then it loses all synergy with Blood Price...

As broken as it'd be, I'd still quite like Minus Strike in some form... Could work quite nicely for a Cover style skill actually; Rather than defending an ally, Dark Knights cover just makes them more stronger the lower their allies HP gets, meaning you either back off that target, or power up the Dark Knight... Would be less of a defensive Cover, and more of a "If you kill my healer, yours is next" style skill... That's no doubt ridiculous though, and a straight up Cover clone technically achieves something similar by giving you more Dark Arts potential through Blood Price synergy... Could perhaps tone it down and just reverse Cover/Synastry so you use it on an enemy; So long as your near to them, they take x% of the damage you deal to another target... That would let Dark Knight apply pressure to two targets (which is kinda where I think SE is taking the Job, given the AoEs and Full Swing/Sole Survivor combo), or alternatively give the Job some pushing power... If my healer is being focused, I could use such a skill on whoever is focusing them and have my healer stick to me while I do my regular thing... Their DPS either backs off or we're really punishing their healer...